Blood in the Water: MMA Killer Instinct

On June 4th Denis Kang did it again. Fighting in the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix he took on feared striker Murilo “Ninja” Rua from the Chuteboxe Academy. The fight did not go long: he KO’d Ninja in 12 seconds! You can see this video below; don’t blink – it’s over pretty quick!

If you watch the video you see Denis connect with a right cross that causes Ninja to lose his balance. Denis senses an opportunity to end the fight and chases Ninja across the ring and then to the ground, all the while throwing bombs with both hands. It’s hard to tell exactly how many punches were thrown, but it was at least 15 or 16 power punches in less than 10 seconds!

Now throwing 15 power punches in 10 seconds is a good way to tire yourself out, UNLESS you are in great shape and are pretty sure that this flurry is going to end the fight. Denis knew Ninja was in trouble and made sure that he never recovered. Great fighters have a well-developed ability to go piranha on someone when they taste blood in the water. This ability to seize an opportunity and end the fight is partially instinctive and partially the result of countless hours of training.

The same killer instinct can be applied to submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu: suppose you have your opponent pinned and he escapes, but exerts an enormous amount of energy to do so. If you do nothing, you allow your opponent to rest and recover a little bit. If you use this opportunity to advance your position and finish with a submission – despite being tired yourself – then you have just successfully used your inner piranha!